A patient care program for adjusting the autoinjector needle depth according to subcutaneous tissue thickness in patients with multiple sclerosis receiving subcutaneous injections of glatiramer acetate

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glatiramer Acetate in the context of multiple sclerosis, published as a clinical study.

The perceived pain on injection site caused by subcutaneous (SC) self-injection may negatively affect acceptance and adherence to treatment in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Pain on injection may be caused by inaccurate injection technique, inadequate needle length adjustment, or repeated use of the same injection body area.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, children, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This was a pilot program performed by MS-specialized nurses in patients with MS new to GA.

Patients were trained by MS nurses on the preparation and administration of SC injection and on an eight-site rotation (left and right arms, thighs, abdomen, and upper quadrant of the buttock).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a pilot study.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Glatiramer Acetate study would be practical.

The needle length setting was selected based on SCT measures as follows: 4 or 6 mm for SCT < 25 mm, 6 or 8 mm for SCT between 25 and 50 mm, and 8 or 10 mm for SCT > 50 mm.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Glatiramer Acetate, Medication Adherence, Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting, Needles, Nursing Assessment, Pain Measurement and Pilot Projects.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a pilot study of Glatiramer Acetate in people with multiple sclerosis.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2015 (The Journal of neuroscience nursing : journal of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Glatiramer Acetate compound page, Multiple sclerosis research.